Strong cast keeps 'Being Human' from being ordinary

Being
Human," Syfy’s much-hyped new drama, has more life in it than it should. It is,
after all, the story of a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost.

And, thankfully, the show works hard to be anything
but just another vampire, werewolf and ghost story.

A re-imagining of a British series of the same name,
"Being Human" follows three roommates who live in Boston — Aidan (Sam Witwer), a
200-year-old vampire; Josh (Sam Huntington), a freshly-cursed werewolf; and
Sally (Meaghan Rath), a recently-deceased ghost — as they struggle to hide their
secrets from humanity, while helping each other, well, try to be more
human.

It’s plain the roommates have their own demons to
contend with: Aidan tries to stay sober, rejecting human feedings; Josh
experiments with how best to tame the beast within; and Sally copes with not
only losing her life, but the love of her life, too. And the first three
episodes seem to indicate much bigger mysteries unraveling on the fringes of
each character’s world.

Production values are above-par for a Syfy series and
the werewolf transformation’s practical effects are something to behold —
perhaps the best shapeshifting since "An American Werewolf in
London."

Huntington and, especially, Witwer are standouts and
play their tortured characters well. It doesn’t hurt, either, that genre
favorite Mark Pelligrino (Jacob on "Lost") has been cast as the vampire Bishop,
Aidan’s darkly-mannered mentor.

But if the drama wants to stand on its own merits,
the writers should act quickly and vere from scenes and story arcs that mimic
too closely what’s already been done in the UK version. The production will only
be better for it.

The first season of "Being Human" will be 13 episodes
and premieres Monday at 8 p.m. on Syfy.